Francesca's On Chestnut — Restaurant in Chicago

MAKE THIS YOUR LAST RESORT!! OR NOT!! We had dinner here after trying to get into five different Italian restaurants in Chicago — all fully booked. Francesca’s had plenty of availability, which should have been our first red flag.

We were seated promptly, but we waited a long time just to receive our entrees. I ordered the rigatoni, which was decent but nothing memorable. My spouse ordered an off-menu special: steak and risotto. While the initial flavors were promising, the steak was ordered medium-well and came out nearly rare.

Our server Ben — who was fantastic and very attentive — noticed the issue immediately and took the steak away without us having to say anything. Since my spouse’s dish was being corrected, I asked them to take my rigatoni back as well so that both meals could come out hot together. We then waited well over 20 minutes for the dishes to return.

When the steak came back, it was sadly the same piece of meat, now completely dried out and overcooked. Even the busboy noticed how long we had been sitting without food and came over to check on us, which said a lot.

By that time, my wine was warm, and my mojito had gone watery. They could have — at the very least — offered to refresh our drinks, but no one did.

The manager on duty, Constantine (forgive me if I misspelled it), tried to explain away the overcooked steak by claiming, “this is how we do medium-well,” saying they pull it at a certain temperature and let it continue cooking. As a professional chef and business owner myself, I had to let him know that properly handled carryover cooking results in a juicy, correctly cooked steak — not an overdone one. His explanation simply wasn’t acceptable.

He offered to either replace the dish or provide a dessert. We chose to try the shrimp scampi, clearly requesting that it not be too spicy. After another long wait, the scampi arrived along with the manager and chef, but unfortunately, it was still too spicy. At that point, we decided we were done trying.

Earlier, the manager said he would “take care of” the dish. Given the series of mistakes, I reasonably assumed he meant he would at least comp the part of the meal that was continuously wrong — not the entire bill, but certainly not just a standard removal of a dish we couldn’t eat. That should happen automatically when food is sent back.

To make matters worse, when we expressed we still weren’t happy with the new dish, the manager rolled his eyes at us and never returned to check on us afterward — completely unprofessional behavior.

We did have the tiramisu for dessert, but sadly, it tasted watery and bland — we’ve had much better from small local bakeries. The only real highlight of the evening was the meatballs, which were genuinely good.

Overall, it wasn’t just the food mishaps that ruined the night — it was the dismissive attitude, the lack of real hospitality, and the unwillingness to truly correct the experience. Mistakes happen, and we completely understand that. But how a restaurant handles them makes all the difference. BEN and the fellow who sets the tables were great, that’s why I gave 2 stars.

We will not...

There are few Italian restaurants I recommend to people, and Francesca’s is one of them. I’ve been a handful of times for work/school events and they never disappoint. The service is 10/10 and the food is GOOD.

This time we started with a carpaccio, calamari, and the bruschetta. So damn good, that carpaccio I did snatch from the rest of the group so I could chew it right down mmm so good. All the apps were 10 out of 10. It was not on my dime so of course I had to order some drinks and an entree my own pocket could not afford 🤭 I forget the name of the first drink but it was like a passion fruit aperol spritz. I had to bite my tongue because I was ready to order another one 💀 so light and flavorful. Then I ate up that seafood medley type pasta I wanted something w seafood and tomato sauce vbevayse I love to wipe the bottom of the plate with my bread. It was so good like… woah. And I had a good amount leftover to take home. I did enjoy it the next day. 10/10. For dessert I tried the chocolate torte and the panna cotta. I do not like chocolate but this cake was so rich and so filling whewwwww chile I could only take 1 bite. The panna cotta was good too, not wow, but good. 9 out of 10. I’d get it again. I’m allergic to pistachios and they were very accommodating to leave those out. I also wanted a dessert drink and I believe they gave me some sort of a lemon drop shot or something? Chile ion know… but I did sip on it and slurp it back 🤭🤭🤭🤭 too good!!!!

Overall I had a delicious meal. The bill???? I did not see the bill 💀 but all I can say is the food was good and I...

We recently dined at Francesca’s on Chestnut. We started with a couple of orders of bruschetta, which were good. The salads were average. We ordered several entrees, sides, and a pizza off the specials menu. The lasagna Bolognese and Steak Diane special were both very good, and the salmon was okay. However, the pizza was disappointing and honestly hard to eat due to the flavor.

The atmosphere was okay. The tables in our section felt a little tight, and the noise level was louder than average, which made conversation a bit difficult at times.

One of the sides, sautéed spinach, arrived about 10 minutes after the rest of the food, which felt too late. Three of us had glasses of red wine that were good, but one of us ordered a second glass during the meal, and it didn’t arrive until after the table had already been cleared. At that point, it was no longer needed and was sent back.

Our server, Ben, seemed overwhelmed and was largely absent throughout the meal. While we understand restaurants can get busy, the overall service was lacking. At the end, we spoke with the manager and shared our concerns. He was gracious, offered us a dessert (which we declined), and removed the pizza, the late wine, and one appetizer from the bill. We appreciated the effort to make things right.

Unfortunately, despite the gesture, the experience just didn’t leave us wanting to return. It’s a shame, as we live nearby and had hoped this would become...